Staying away from the "Tolkien" part of my interests, I am very interested in art; I especially love pencil drawings, though I work well with charcoal and pastels, too. I have recently taken up both traditional and digital painting, both of which are quite a bit of fun. I love to design websites; coding is more interesting than I ever thought it could be. I write, whenever I have the time; usually it's fan fiction, short stories, or poetry. I love reading, horseback riding, listening to music, and I am very, very addicted to the internet.

First Lord of the Rings reading experience:

I was in 6th grade at the time. I did know of the books, but I did not pick them up until I saw a trailer for FOTR. After that, I read the Hobbit and I was through FOTR when the actual movie came out. After I saw the movie, I quickly read through TTT and ROTK. While I do not remember too much about it, I do remember completely panicking when I read the last line of TTT: "Frodo was alive but taken by the Enemy". I was so disappointed that I had to wait to see what happened to him, though I soon got back into the other's stories. I liked the books quite a bit, but it wasn't until the year ROTK came out that I was completely and hopelessly obsessed.

Favorite Tolkien character:

Aragorn. He's been my favorite character several years now. He was definitely one of my top favorites when I originally read the book, but he topped Faramir after ROTK came out and after I reread the books for the third time. In the books, I love him because he really is such a character who goes through obvious change: a grim, sarcastic Ranger to a noble, sarcastic King (just look in "The Houses of Healing" and "Strider" for examples). I love how, despite the fact that he's king, he's still human and has personality. In the movies, he is brilliant at sword fighting, and Viggo!Aragorn is simply gorgeous. But really, Aragorn is a very inspiring character, and I really admire him for struggling so many years and staying sane. Along with Aragorn, I love the characters Gandalf, Faramir, and Halbarad.